Nearly 24 hours after a large transmission cable came down in Painesville, power was restored late evening on March 2.
Mark Durbin of FirstEnergy Corp. said a large, 130,000 kilovolt transmission line fell near State Route 535 and Richmond Street shortly before midnight on March 1.
Because of the size of the cable and the increased voltage it carries compared to a normal power line, specialized crews from the Akron area were called in to fix the problem, said Durbin.
“It just takes a bit longer to make that repair safely,” he said.
At the outage’s peak, Durbin said about 48,000 customers were without power in numerous cities including Concord, Mentor, Willoughby, Painesville, Painesville Township, Madison, Leroy and Fairport Harbor.
Shortly before 9 p.m. March 2 Durbin said all customers affected by this incident should have power.
While the cause is still under investigation, Durbin said “it appears as if it was weather-related.” In harsh winters, the process of repeated freezes and thaws could cause a connection on a tower to come loose, resulting in a fallen wire. Routine inspections are done on the lines to prevent this type of incident, but not all can be prevented.
Customers of Painesville City’s Electric Department also were affected by the outage, but as of 8 p.m. March 2 a department employee confirmed all customers in the city had power restored.